470 STRIX. SCREECH-OWL. 



macli very large, roundish, a little compressed ; its muscular 

 coat very thin, and composed of a single series of coarse fasci- 

 culi ; the central tendons thin and small, the inner coat very 

 thin, perfectly smooth, and even. Pylorus very small, closed 

 by a rim, or having one triangular prominence. Intestine of 

 moderate length, narrow, contracting toward the coeca ; which 

 are long, of the same diameter at the base as the intestine, gra- 

 dually enlarge, and terminate in an oblong extremity ; cloacal 

 dilatation extremely large and globular. 



Nostrils medial, large, ovate, oblique, in the anterior edge of 

 the cere. Eyes very large, slightly mobile, obliquely situated ; 

 eyelids with ciliary fringes of small feathers having distant 

 filaments, and broad, thin, crenate margins, which are discon- 

 tinued at the two canthi or angles ; both eyelids equally mobile. 

 Aperture of the ear, properly so called, large, subrectangular, 

 oblique, with an upper and a lower somewhat elevated margin, 

 and an anterior operculum, which is large, erect, somewhat 

 semicircular, subtruncate, and beset with feathers. Conch 

 extremely large, semicircular, extending from over the ante- 

 rior angle of the eye to the middle of the lower jaw ; its surface 

 sparsely covered with long, slender feathers, of which the basal 

 half is destitute of filaments. 



Head extremely large, broad behind, somewhat trigonal, 

 •with the sides flattened and sloping forwards. When the fea- 

 thers are removed the skull is found to be more elongated than 

 in the other genera, its anterior part remarkably spongy, so that 

 the septum between the orbits is of great thickness. The neck 

 is as thick as the head, and exceeds in this respect the greater 

 part of the body ; but on being denuded is found to be slender. 

 The body also is slender, deeper than broad, and much com- 

 pressed behind. Legs rather long, of moderate strength ; tibia 

 longish and muscular ; tarsi of moderate length, covered with 

 small downy feathers ; toes short, covered above with trans- 

 verse series of small scales, together with adpressed shaft- 

 bristles, and two or three large terminal scutella, beneath pad- 

 ded and covered with flattened papillae ; the third and fourth 

 connected by a very small basal membrane ; the first very 

 short, the third longest, but not much exceeding the second 



